Well, this is interesting. The New York Times caught wind of a special and secret meeting between Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer and Adobe's frontman Shantanu Narayen. They claim the entire talk was dedicated to the fight against Apple, and one of the options discussed was... Microsoft acquiring Adobe.

I personally use Photoshop and Lightroom all the time on my Mac and would be very sad if a Microsoft acquisition threatened the future of the Mac versions of those products. I don't think its likely.

What's interesting though is firstly it shows how anxious, threatened and frankly desperate both companies feel about the growth of Apple. Adobe really should have been nicer to Apple and Mac users back when it would have been a kindness, as it was we felt often let down by them just when the Mac's fortunes were at a low ebb. Lots of Mac users and plenty of people at Apple have long memories.

Second, no one thinks such a move would kill Apple or even stop it growing. A few years back it might have done. How times change.